


Ilona's Garden

by redradioflyer



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: F/F, Fae & Fairies, First Meetings, magical negotiations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 03:35:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17093264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redradioflyer/pseuds/redradioflyer
Summary: Amelia stumbles into the garden of a handsome and powerful Good Neighbor, but the woman just wants a chance to talk to Amelia after admiring her from afar.





	Ilona's Garden

Amelia goes jogging every morning, and that’s why she doesn’t think much about running into the foggy park. Fog isn’t uncommon in the morning, and it was a safe forested area. What wasn’t normal was the field of gorgeous flowers now next to the trail. Slowing to a stop, she smiles out at the beautiful blooming colors. With her hype music pounding into her ears, she steps out into the field without a thought in her head except for the bass and the beauty before her. 

She approaches a large white lily with a deep pink center, and she breathes out the word, “Beautiful…!” She slides her fingertips over one of the petals, feeling the softness of it. 

Then there’s a  swirl of color to her left, and she turns with surprise thinking it might be an animal. Instead she’s facing a gorgeous woman with deep red hair and lovely golden bronze skin. She's dressed strangely, thin cats claw vines curling through her hair and her dress made of flowering vines.

Indeed, the vines of making up her dress and twining through her hair seemed haphazard- as though they’d grown up and around her without any regard for covering any particular area. Amelia could see high on the woman’s thigh, catch a hint of hair between her legs. Her eyes linger on the curve of the her breasts and the darker brown nipple barely visible beneath a burst of pink flowers. 

Amelia remembers herself and she looks up into the woman’s eyes. The woman smiles and Amelia watches her full red lips move. It takes a moment to realize that her music is too loud, and she tugs her ear buds out. 

“Oh.. oh sorry, uh say again?” Amelia says, her voice so breathless it sounds strange to her own ears. She has always been such a confident person that she doesn’t really feel this nervous all that often. But this woman with her sharp deep brown eyes… 

Amelia’s heart is beating a hard rhythm in her chest, and this woman is the gorgeous conductor. 

Her lips move again, and Amelia stares at them as she speaks. 

“You enjoy my garden,” she says, a statement of fact. “Come deeper inside.” A command, not an invitation. 

There’s no way to disobey this woman, and Amelia follows at her heels as the woman moves. She can see her shoulder blades, the small of her back, the curve of her ass. The only succinct way that Amelia could describe her as would be ‘mouth-watering.’ 

Amelia walks after her, reaching out to take a gentle hold of one of the vines. She expected it to be fake somehow but a flower blooms before her eyes under her fingertips. 

“Who _**are**_ you?” Amelia asks, wonder in her voice. 

The woman pauses and turns, but it takes Amelia a moment to stop as well. Which means they’re standing very close together. Suddenly, her heart is in her throat and she feels compelled to fall at this woman’s feet.

“Ilona,” she responds, and she smiles. 

Amelia’s face goes red. She’s caught in her eyes, trying to to figure what the color of them were. At first, she was sure they were brown, but now they look more red. For a moment there’s no thoughts in her head at all, replaced by a dull pulsing need to be focused fully on the woman in front of her. 

Then strong arms are shoving her back. Amelia hits the ground with an ‘oomph!’ and she feels stunned. Her head aches a little but she can think again. What the hell was happening? What was this? Why did she feel this way? 

“Don’t look into my eyes, child,” Ilona says, voice oddly harsh compared to the soft words she’d spoken so far. 

But when Amelia looks up, Ilona’s eyes are covered with a cloth, tied at the back of her head. It was as if a weight was being lifted off of her, and Amelia’s head was clear for the first time. Terror claws at her throat because this wasn’t right. What was this woman? 

Amelia hadn’t been aware of how… muted and quiet her thoughts had been after she’d entered this place, but now that Ilona’s eyes are covered, Amelia feels the… unreality of this place to the fullest. The place was beautiful of course, but there were flowers like she’s never seen. Even the ones she had seen before were enhanced somehow. It was as if her whole life had been playing on VHS tape but now she was in a Blu-ray. The terror gets the better of her, and she’s on her feet, fleeing from the strange woman and the magic grabbing at her heels. 

~~

For a week, Amelia goes on as though nothing has happened- well, except for taking a new jogging trail. She’d been taking that other trail, because there’s still a lingering fear of the clawing magic she felt . Her mind keeps drifting to that woman though. 

Ilona… a quick google turns up a fairy queen- all of it was vague-ish though because apparently this was a Hungarian story. There was one book about fairies that said Hungarian tündér were more benevolent and beautiful than many other ‘kinds’ of fairies. They were nature fairies sometimes surrounded by lush gardens… but they cry tears of pearl and even their urine turned to gold. 

Nothing of strange, siren magic or the wild call in the fairy’s eyes. Indeed, some of it sounds strange- Ilona as a swan, Ilona as a fairy queen turning a girl into a flower. There’s even a story that almost sounds like Ilona is a Hungarian Sleeping Beauty. 

Somehow, none it sounded right at all. Even consulting her favorite exchange student Elizaveta doesn’t help her. Elizaveta knows of no story about a foggy garden and a woman using hypnotism or magic drawing unsuspecting joggers away from their paths. 

So Amelia has no choice. She has to go back. 

~~

This time she’s not in her unflattering jogging attire. Admittedly, it’s not super fancy- a pair of jeans and a nice blouse to show off her figure. She slows to a stop outside of the clearing the garden had been… There’s nothing there now. 

“Ilona,” she says softly. The wind kicks up for a moment, but it dies down quickly enough. So she calls her name again, louder. 

Fog never comes, but Amelia closes her eyes and walks out into clearing anyways. Here’s to hoping…. 

Two steps into the grass and she can feel the change in the clearing. She blinks her eyes open and there’s the garden again. Ilona is nowhere in sight yet, and Amelia takes a breath to call again. 

Before she can, a voice behind her says, “Hush, you’ll disturb the roses.” 

Amelia spins to find Ilona, dress still vines but with different flowers blooming over them now. Notably, she has her eyes covered again with a strip of cloth. 

Still, the sight is a good one. Amelia grins, wide and relieved. “I found you again! I didn’t think I could get back here.” 

“You called,” the woman says and she approaches slowly. “But you didn’t like my garden before.” Once again it was a statement not a question. 

“Oh well,” she says. “I thought it was beautiful! I just got scared. You have a lot of magic don’t you….?” 

Ilona nods and now she’s come close enough that they can touch. 

“And you’re a fairy. The book said Ilona was a fairy queen… A real life queen of fairies!” Amelia has moved forward with all the confidence of someone who doesn’t care if she’s making a mistake. 

It could be a mistake after all, interacting with this clearly magical person. For now, though, it was kinda nice to link arms with her 

“What…?” Ilona asks, her full lips tilting into an amused expression. “You searched for me in books?” This seems to please the fairy. “You know there are more than one fairy who shares the same name. I was named for a fairy queen.” 

Amelia blinks at this and looks over at her in shock. “I thought names were important to fairies! That’s what stories say.” 

There’s a long quiet as Ilona takes a flower to tuck behind Amelia’s ear. The gesture is oddly gentle for a creature that Amelia rapidly understanding is very powerful. Although she seems to have control over her powers, Ilona still radiated her strength like a beacon. 

“Stories,” Ilona says, and her carefully neutral expression becomes amused. “You know there are many stories about my folk. From all over the world. There’s many kinds of us.” 

“And what kind are you?” Amelia asks, though as she glances down at the vines curling up along her arms. 

“What kind indeed,” the fairy responds, and she spreads out a palm, a beautiful rose blossoming from her skin. 

“Wow! You’re amazing!” Amelia says as she leans forward, gently cupping the Ilona’s hand, and smells the flower. She glances up at Ilona, and she wonders about the blindfold. She wasn’t feeling that pull or that magic from before so maybe the fairy was doing this for her. 

They’re quiet for a moment as Ilona shows Amelia through rows of trees and flowers. It is Amelia that breaks the quiet again. “So nature lady, but like, are you evil or good?” 

Ilona stops completely and she outright laughs- a booming startled laughter. She leans forward and covers her mouth, clearly not the type to laugh like this often. The sight is so endearing that Amelia feels her heart melting a little. 

“And would you… would you believe me if I told you?” Ilona finally asks, laughter still on her lips. 

“Okay okay, so I didn’t think about my question well enough,” Amelia admits, laughing as well. “But your magic last time…” 

For a moment, Ilona falls quiet. Then she says carefully, “Feelings are power. Casting the gateway and wanting so much to see you… My magic had more pull than I anticipated. I am more careful now, Amelia. Don’t worry.” 

“Oh,” Amelia says, glancing over with surprise. “You know my name…?” 

Ilona nods. “I know the name of all those that come into my domain. You are a frequent visitor. It’s why I… invited you in…” After a moment, she adds, “I apologize for the pressure of it.” 

“And you wanted to meet me~?” Amelia arches a brow. Holy hell, a fairy queen was interested in her? How very interesting.

“I did,” Ilona replies, that neutral expression returning. “You are the loveliest flower I’ve seen in many ages.” This is not a forced compliment- it is delivered earnestly and straightforwardly, like a statement of fact.

This made Amelia’s cheeks go red and she smiles. “If you think that you should take the blindfold off, and look at me.” 

“I’ll be candid,” she replies. “The easiest way to enchant you to stay is to look into your eyes. I don’t trust my control well enough for that.” 

“What…?” Amelia asks, but Ilona shakes her head. 

“I will show you my garden,” the fairy replies. 

So Amelia spends what feels like hours exploring the fairy’s home- a sprawling garden with a home in the base of a huge tree. It was perhaps the most enchanting day of her whole life. Ilona is just about the most amazing person she’d ever met, and more than once she thought that she might kiss her. 

But Amelia couldn't risk kissing someone who couldn’t even look at her without fears of bewitching her. A kiss might steal her heart as well as her mind. 

~~ 

“I’ll come again soon!” Amelia says, grabbing Ilona up into her arms. “I had so much fun today~ I wanna hang out with you more.” 

This is the first time in hours that Ilona’s expression looks somber again. “I’m afraid it’s not so simple as that. You can only enter my realm one more time. Humans can not tread between realms so often. Twice you can enter and twice you can return. But thrice…. should you enter here you will never be able to leave.” 

Amelia’s eyes go wide, and she tilts her head. “Oh… I’d have to live here… forever…” 

“I would welcome you in with open arms,” Ilona says then, completely honestly. “Or I shouldn’t have allowed you to come here even once. But I will not trick you.” 

These words give her pause, and Amelia phrases her thoughts carefully. “In many stories… fairies do steal humans away to keep…” 

Ilona walks past her to straighten some flowers in front of her. “In my younger years… when I didn’t understand my powers, I did lead humans I… felt for… into the world of the fairies.” She lets out a breath and she admits quietly, “Humans who come here unwillingly or with enchantment… they do not last.” 

With this, Ilona plucks a flowers from the vine. It’s a gorgeous flower, about the size of a tulip, but Amelia has never seen anything like it in the human world. Ilona places the flower into her hands. 

“Humans must choose to stay if they wish to last,” she says. “You are too bright a flower, and I will not watch you wither.” 

“You’re a poet, I get it,” Amelia says, cheeks hot.

Ilona smiles just a little at the teasing tone, and she says, “If you ever wish to return, all you have to do is eat the petals of this flower. Consider carefully- for if you come here, there is no easy way to return home.” 

With these words, Ilona leans up, pressing a gentle chaste kiss to her mouth. Although the kiss is short, it sends electricity all the way down to her toes. Before Amelia could respond, the world shifts and she’s in the clearing next to the trail again.

~~ 

For two whole months, Amelia considers what she will do. She isn’t sure if she could give up her world for a woman that she has met only twice. As a rather lively and popular person, she had friends she’d miss, and she has a job. She was studying for an occupation she was interested in… 

But she can’t stop thinking about it, and she wants so badly to see her again. Soon it’s all she can think of- the garden, the fairy, the home in the tree. Then she has dreams of it. It’s only after a lot of thought does she make her decision. 

~~ 

Expensive things she can’t use are sold. 

Rent is paid. 

Clothes are packed. 

She has a purse full of favorite foods. 

She has dressed in her favorite clothes, her make-up is done absolutely perfectly, and she’s even curled her hair. 

Only then does she eat the petals of her flower. 


End file.
